Investigation grows into prison director's murder

MONUMENT - It's a crime that was both swift and merciless. State prison director Tom Clements opened his front door last night and was shot and killed.

Minutes earlier a neighbor had spotted a dark two-door car idling at the intersection Colonial Park Drive and Scarsbrook Court just a short ways down the street from the Clements home.

Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriffs Office described the car as a boxy style vehicle.

"It's something similar to a late 80's early 90's model Lincoln, perhaps a Cadillac; something of that nature," Kramer said.

The same witness spotted the car again, this time on Higby Road near Jackson Creek Parkway. Only the driver was inside. Kramer says there might have been another witness who saw either the car or its driver.

"There was a white female, perhaps between the age of 35 and 50 who was speed walking or exercising, if you will, along Colonial Park Drive around 8:30 last night," he said.

Neighbor Matthew Dunston lives a few houses away. He didn't hear the gun shots but says another neighbor did.

"My neighbor across the street from me said that while he was reading to his son he thought he heard something fall on the roof, evidently that must have been the gun shot," Dunston said.

He doubts the murder was random and doesn't fear for his family's safety.

"It's my sense that this was targeted," Dunston said. "If you're in the Department of Corrections you're going to deal with the worst type of people when they're at their worst."

In the meantime, investigators are asking anyone with information related to this case to call the El Paso County Sheriff's Office at 719-390-5555.